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Retailers Still Struggling With ID Management, Study Finds

Retailers are widely employing identity management strategies to improve their targeting in email and other channels, and 58% have implemented technology for identifying their customers.

That doesn’t mean they are succeeding, judging by Campaign Intelligence: How Retail Marketers Use Customer-Focused ID Management to Increase Satisfaction & Profitability, a study by Etail
Insights, sponsored by IDme.

Many retailers are struggling to understand their customers because they can’t integrate their technologies. And while 26% can identify a shopper who makes a
purchase, 34% have no strategy in place for doing so.

In addition, 42% have not employed ID management technologies for personalization and better targeting, although 35% are considering
it.

At the same time, 30% are working with these systems but say it’s still a developing part of their business. And 28% are using the technologies, saying it’s a core part
of their business.

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Companies that do have such ID processes are using them with these goals in mind:

The benefits include gating group discount options for
affinity groups and/or fraud protection, cited by 59%.

In addition, 55% are tailoring marketing opportunities to customers in innovative ways. And 49% say they are pinpointing their best
customers.

But there are challenges. The main ones are:

Our technologies do not integrate in a way that facilitates data integration and enrichment — 38%

We have a data aggregation and enrichment strategy, but we are not there yet — 32%

We have struggled to index or key our internal data to outside data sources —
24%

We have none, because this is not a priority for our company — 23%

We are still working on integrating and mining our internal data — 21%

We have none,
because we are doing this successfully — 20%

The study also found that millennials are the most sought-after group — 47% target them directly. Specific consumer
categories are next (43%), followed by college students (39%), company employees (35%) and military & veteran (35%).

Major percentages also prioritize these group, while not directly
targeting them.

Etail partnered with WBR Insights to survey 100 retail processionals in the U.S.